Areas of Expertise

Burns’ research focuses on the solid state and environmental chemistry of heavy metals, especially actinides including uranium, neptunium and plutonium. He is the director of the Energy Frontier Research Center Materials Science of Actinides. This EFRC, which is funded by the Department of Energy, includes senior researchers and students at six universities and three national laboratories. Burns also serves as director of the Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame and concurrent professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Burns , who has received numerous awards throughout his career, has been named one of the top 10 most cited authors in the field of geosciences for the period 1997 to 2006.